Benoit Calls on State to Preserve Redevelopment

News Release

2011

SACRAMENTO – Supervisor John J. Benoit implored legislators today to refrain from stripping
local governments of their redevelopment funds and look at trimming state spending instead.

“It was critically important to share the merits of this vital tool for local government which
has made possible infrastructure beneficial to the entire community,” Supervisor Benoit testified
at the California State Senate budget subcommittee hearing. “We should not throw this baby
out with the bathwater.”

Supervisor Benoit, who served in the state Assembly and Senate for a combined total of seven
years, highlighted the difference between belt tightening at the local level and excessive spending
at the state level.

“I came to Sacramento to present the reality of Riverside County’s budget picture, where overall
personnel has shrunk 10 percent and department directors have sustained deep cuts upwards of 25
percent to their budgets,” Benoit said. “I have not seen this same level of commitment to
reductions in the state’s bureaucracy.”

Benoit highlighted the communities of Rubidoux and Mecca, two of the county’s most impoverished
areas as good examples of redevelopment. Prior to the county’s investments in those
communities, they had meager roads that would easily flood and a lack of community staples, such as
sidewalks, housing units and a library.

If the Legislature follows Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal to eliminate redevelopment
agencies, those communities and many others will suffer, Supervisor Benoit testified.

“Riverside County has used redevelopment well to eradicate blight, build affordable housing and
revitalize some of the county’s most challenged communities,” Supervisor Benoit said.